Tuesday, August 28, 2007

"Perfect Stranger"

A week ago, a new movie came out on DVD staring Bruce Willis, and Halle Berry called “Perfect Stranger.” I vaguely remember the movie when it hit the theaters, but the previews certainly did not grab me enough to want to go pay the big bucks to see it. After looking up the box office numbers of only 23 Million total, I was obviously not the only person who felt this way.

Halle plays an investigative reporter Rowena Price. After finding out one of her friends has been killed after having an affair with the president of a rich Ad agency (Harrison Hill played by Bruce) She quits her job, and gets hired on through a temp service working for Harrison in an attempt to infiltrate his private life, and find out if he is the one responsible for her friends death. Harrison is of course married, but by no means faithful to his wife. Things get complicated, when Harrison sets his eyes on his new temp worker. Rowena plays up to him to get in even closer to his personal affairs, but things get even stickier after Harrison catches wind of her plan. Giovanni Ribisi, plays the creepy friend of Rowena who obviously would like to be much more then a friend, and is obviously one of the dark horses in this Who-dun-it film.

Bruce very rarely plays in a dud movie, but I think his name is starting to stretch pretty thin these days. His character barely holds my interest in this film, and the chemistry between Bruce and Halle is non existent. Halle on the other hand, is even worse. Her scatterbrained character never really took on any true form at all, and even in the scenes where what little talent she has as an actress shows through, ends up being over acted. A few skimpy, tight fitting outfits, and a sex scene (which was also bad) does not save this movie in anyway, so all you Halle fans out there, don’t waste your time. Director James Foley can not take full blame for this movie, but even with a different cast, I’m not sure this script could have survived. There is almost no cohesiveness to the story, and while you’re sitting there waiting for a good scene, or a clue that might lead to revealing who the killer is, the time clock just seems to run out with a loud BUZZ!

The only saving grace for this story is the ending. Exactly one time in the past decade Hollywood has managed to stump me when comes to surprise endings, and that movie was the first “Saw” film. Now I can officially say that it has been twice in the past decade. I had no clue on this one, until it actually happened on screen, so if you are so inclined to rent this movie, just to try and figure out the ending before it happens, be my guest.

I have taken to checking out what people have been saying about these movies I have been reviewing lately, and in couple of instances, my thoughts about a movie I must admit have been very different then some people who left reviews on Amazon or other places. There are some folks that have had good things to say about Perfect Stranger, so who knows, this may be a toss up. Myself, I did not care for the movie as a whole, but there are enough aspects of the movie that may be appealing enough for Bruce or Halle fans to go out and rent this one.

My rating for this movie is 6.00 out of 10.00

Sunday, August 26, 2007

"The Bourne Ultimatum"

In trying to keep up with the most current movies in the theater, I went out and saw “The Bourne Ultimatum” over the weekend. All the talk around the water cooler suggested that it was a good movie, and worth seeing. I’m guessing some how I will probably be taken out and shot for this review, but one word comes to mind. “Yawn.”

Personally, I have always enjoyed a good cloak and dagger type movie, if it is done correctly. I can not say that the Bourne Ultimatum was done UN correctly, but the simple fact is, it has been done, re-done, and now done for a third time. About the only difference between the three movies, is that Jason Bourne finally finds out the true story about his past, and even that was anti climatic to say the least.

Matt Damon has made some fantastic movies in his young career, and a few of them have even cracked what I would call as my top 50 greatest movies. "Good will Hunting," and "The Legend of Baggar Vance" are two examples of Damon at his best. Even with his young man demeanor, he manages to take those characters and do them justice. In the Jason Bourne movies, Matt tries to play this big, bad, and mean character, and for the most part, it just has never worked for me. I was really hoping that Director Paul Greengrass would have taken a different direction with this third installment of the Bourne series, but instead he did probably what any good director would have done. He took the best, and most exciting parts of the other two movies, and focused the new movie around those scenes, giving the audience exactly what they wanted. Unfortunately, this recipe fell short in my opinion, and ended up with scene, after scene of the same thing. Jason, running around dodging the governments hit men, and barely escaping each time by the skin of his teeth.

I think that the most disappointing part about this film, is that in the end, they never really wrapped up the story, and then to add insult to injury, they left the window wide open for a 4th movie! Hollywood could have taken this series, and made two really good movies, and then left it on the shelf where it should be now, but instead they chose to try and cash in on their previous success. From what most people have told me after seeing the movie, it looks as though they will succeed for a third time, and hey if that is what the audience is looking for, more power to them. For me it was just second rate, and I should have waited for the DVD on this one.

My rating for this movie is 6.50 out of 10.00

Thursday, August 23, 2007

"Ghost Rider"

Wow, what to say about Ghost Rider. I think I was just bored to tears one Saturday night, and I went to go see this flick just because there was nothing else worth seeing at the time, and in a few of the previews, the C.G. I looked pretty good. Hey what can I say, I’m a guy. Good special effects are always a good thing, even if the end result is not always a good movie.

Ghost Rider is about a modern day Evil Knievel “Johnny Blaze” (played by Nicholas Cage) who makes a deal with the devil to save his father, and in doing so trades his soul to become the Ghost Rider. A tool of Mephistopheles, Ghost Rider can look into someone’s eyes, and see their past, and judge them as innocent or guilty. His main power I guess you could call it, is his Penance stair. The guilty can be made to feel the pain of their sins turned against them.

This movie adaptation of the popular comic book series turns out to be a fun movie when all is said and done. Mephistopheles is played by none other then the original “Easy Rider” himself, Peter Fonda, and he does a great job with the role. Nicholas, as always just seems to be comfortable playing the same kind of character he plays in all his movies, but like most of his better movies, this formula works. His love interest in this Film is one of the better “Eye candy” actresses Eva Mendes, who plays a nosey reporter. She will never be mistaken for an Oscar winning actress, but she is not hard on the eyes. (Sorry ladies) One of my favorite cowboy actors Sam Elliot, is in this film with Cage, and plays a very interesting character, even if his true identity is not revealed until towards the end of the movie.

As with all the comic books that have made their way to the big screen, in order to achieve anything other then a Ho Hum status, the special effects must be mind blowing in order to capture the true spirit of the comic book. Ghost Rider does NOT disappoint. Blaze changing into the Ghost Rider is fantastic. The motorcycle is incredible, and the scenes where the Ghost Rider, flaming skull and all are riding around causing havoc are great. Director Mark Johnson definitely got it right with the look on this one. From start to finish, he puts the scenes together and shoots them in a way the ties everything together pretty well.

I’m sure some where there are hoards of people who are die hard fans of the comic book series probably crucifying this movie, and the director for even attempting such blasphemy, but as some one who has not read the series, I thought the movie was entertaining, and worth the price of admission, which is actually quite a statement unto itself with the way ticket prices seem to be going up, up and OUT the window these days! Now that the movie is out on DVD, if you’re looking for a good weekend movie to rent, check out Ghost Rider.

My rating for this movie is 7.50 out of 10.00

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

"Cold Fire"

I haven’t posted a book review in a while, so I’m going to add the latest Dean Koontz book I just finished.

Jim Ironheart is the main character in this book. He is handsome and rugged looking, and lucky for him has recently won the lottery so worrying about money is not something he has to do, and for him, and the daunting tasks that are put before him this is a good thing.

Jim has a very strange gift. Someone or something speaks to him, guides him. It can happen at any moment, or any time. Suddenly the voice inside tells him he needs to leave. He may not know where, or how far, but some how he is shown exactly what he needs to take for the trip. As each trip continues along its own path, little tiny pieces of the puzzle present themselves to him, just enough to keep him on the right path, but the right path to what? From experience in the past the only thing Jim knows is that the ultimate goal of each of these games or treks across the world will end one way. In the very last second of time before somebody is killed or dies, he is there to yank them from the claws of death, and all the while he has no clue as to who, what, when, where, or even why. All he knows is that he must follow precisely where the feeling, or prompting by the inner voice leads him if he is to save whoever it is that ends up almost being killed.

Holly Throne, a stubborn reporter who constantly drones on with the same old boring stories for a local news paper, witnesses one of the last second saves performed by Jim, and begins to wonder how he could have possibly been there at that precise second to save this young boy from what would have been an instantaneous death. After doing some research, she finds that this kind of last second heroics by a tall handsome stranger, have happened more then once, in fact they have happened several times, and in many places. She tracks the sources down, and confronts Jim Ironheart, wanting to know his secret, but more importantly wanting to become part of his calling.

These two characters eventually find themselves in one of the scariest situations you could ever find yourself in. A plane is going to crash, but Jim is suppose to only help save specific people that are finally shown to him only after his is ON BOARD the plane and in the air!! I am only brushing the surface of this book. There a bunch of great nail biting chapters, and a strange twist to the tale as the book starts to conclude.

Once again Dean Koontz has come up with a fantastic book, built around great characters that you can quickly identify with even if they are nothing like who you might be in real life. Even with Jim’s incredible gift, you find yourself feeling for this man, and what he has to go through every time “The Game” as I have come to call it, begins.

In most of Dean’s better novels, they are all pretty much focused around a bad guy, and or a killer, and to change the pace, and for once center it around a good guy is refreshing. This book like many others from Mr. Koontz is a total page turner, and has you grasping for the next page. If you are a Koontz fan, this is a must read.

My rating for this book is 8.50 out of 10.00

"Disturbia"

When I first saw the preview for this movie, and knew right off that I would not be seeing it on the big screen simply because the story line has been done to death, so I waited until it came out on DVD and finally took a peek.

I’m now glad I did not spend the money to see it in the theater.

Shia Labeouf is the main character in this movie, and plays Kale. He is troubled teen who is living under house arrest, and quickly finds himself bored beyond belief. A new family with a beautiful daughter, Ashley (played by Sarah Roemer) moves in next door, and the binoculars quickly come out as he spies his new neighbor swimming in a skimpy bikini. Kale’s spying is not just limited to his new neighbor, but instead expands to include the entire neighborhood.

One of his neighbors Mr. Turner (played by David Morse) starts displaying odd behavior, and Kale begins to find similarities between certain murders that took place in another town, and Mr. Turner’s activities. Eventually this paranoia of his neighbor possibly being a serial murderer, Kale involves his friend from school Ronnie (played by Aaron Yoo) and Ashley who finds herself interested in her neighbors spying. The trio set up cameras, and video recorders all focused on Mr. Turner’s house, but the plot quickly turns sour when Mr. Turner finds out about their spying on him, and deals with the mischievous kids by giving them all a good scare.

From this point forward the story becomes as predictable as the Sun rising in the east, and setting in the West. Other then some good creepy acting by David Morse, and the occasional good scare, this movie totally flops. It also makes me sad that Carrie-Ann Moss (Trinity from the Matrix movies) has now been reduced to brief clips in low budget, “B” horror flicks. She plays Kale’s mother.

While I must inevitably give this movie a lousy review, I do understand that director D.J. Caruso probably did not intend his target audience to be over 30. For pre-teens and high school kids, this will probably make a good Friday night rental, and provide for some good old fashion nightmares. Since this is PG-13 it is probably a good choice to keep the kids out of your hair for an evening, but not much more.

My rating for this movie is 6.00 out of 10.00



Monday, August 20, 2007

"Pathfinder"

When I first watched the previews for Pathfinder, I thought that it would probably turn out to be a good movie, and like many times in the past, I made the ultimate mistake of some what listening to the idiot “professional” critics. So it goes without saying that I did not get out to see the movie in the theater. This is the main reason I started my web site. About 90% of the time the big time critics get it wrong, and this is just another good example.

I’m not trying saying that this movie was some Oscar winning epic by any means, but it did have its good points, and was worth watching.

Pathfinder is the tale of blood lusting Vikings as they peruse, and conquer new lands, and kill any inhabitants in their way. While on a particular pillage of an Indian territory, a Viking father becomes enraged when his son will not kill as he commands. The son is abandoned to his own fate, and ends up being raised by the Indians. Ghost (played by Karl Urban) is not completely accepted by the tribe, but he is allowed to go his own direction, and as he grows older, wiser, and more experienced both as a man, and a warrior, they eventually respect him for what he has become.

Eventually the Vikings return to the same lands to reclaim it and destroy its occupants, only to find a resistance lead by Ghost. There are blood and gut scenes that rival any gore movie out there, and yet there are also beautiful landscaped, and picturesque scenes, and some well placed acting between the actors throughout the whole movie. Eventually the invading Vikings find out who Ghost is, and force him to show them where the Indians have hidden, and then it is up to Ghost to find a way to kill the Vikings and their leader before they actually catch up with the rest of the tribe.

The Vikings in this movie could not have been done any better then they were. All of them were huge, menacing, and dressed to the teeth with great costumes. Any time one of them would walk onto a scene with any of the other actors it seemed like David and Goliath, even if in real life they were not much bigger. The way the director Marcus Nispel shot some of the battles scenes just gave you this awesome sense of “scale” with regards to this.

Karl Urban has played some fantastic roles in his young career, and so far I have like most of them. I can’t say that he does a bad job with this particular role, it just seemed to me that he was the wrong actor for the part. I don’t really think he is quite ready for playing the lead in this kind of a movie. Personally I would have gone a different direction with the casting in this film, but again, I’m not putting the acting, or the story down in anyway. Marcus Nispel is trying to find his way in the directing arena, and Pathfinder was a step in the right direction. I think with this film, he has paved the way to better directing jobs.

My rating for this movie is 7.00 out of 10.00



Saturday, August 18, 2007

"Star Dust"

I just got back from catching a really good movie, so I thought I would get a review posted so folks will be able to get out and see it.

"Star Dust" is a brilliant fairy tale type adventure that I did not really have very high hopes for. While a few characters in the movie were well known actors, I expected it to be just brain candy at best. What a nice surprise. Magical, funny, breathtaking, suspenseful, everything a story book movie should be.

Tristan, (played by Charlie Cox) a lonely shop boy living in a village just outside the walls of a magical city, makes a promise to the woman he loves he will go and retrieve a star for her that has fallen inside the walls of the magical city to prove his love for her. The star turns out to be a beautiful girl named Yvaine (played by Claire Danes). As it turns out, not only are stars alive, but they are watching us from above, and can some times be shot from the sky, and fall to earth. The magical properties of a fallen angels heart, can give extended, if not almost eternal life, if #1 it’s given freely by the star, or #2 eaten by wicked witches that inhabit the land.

Tristan’s, journey takes him into this magical realm, and with the help of a magical candle takes him straight to this fallen star, while others are in search of her, for more dark reasons.

The King of the land (played by Peter O’toole) is dying. He has 6 sons that are killing each other off trying to gain the throne once he has died. In the king’s final act, he takes a magic diamond that is ruby red, and throws it into the sky. It turns white, and the king claims that only the true heir to the throne will turn it ruby red once more. The calamity of this whole thing is when the diamond is thrown into the sky, it hits Yvaine and causes her to fall to earth. When she wakes up, she puts the diamond around her neck. Now she has the king’s sons in search of her for the diamond, and the witches in search of her, for her heart.

While the king’s son’s kill one another, the one who is now dead joins the other dead son’s in this comical club that is stuck being ghost’s along for the ride until the end game is played out, and the rightful king is proclaimed. Only then can they be at peace. This ghostly band of dead brothers play a very funny side kick role as the movie progresses, and the group grows ever larger as one by one the King’s son’s die off or are killed.

Along the way Tristan and Yvaine meet up with Captain Shakespeare (played by Robert De Niro) who has a sky boat that goes around netting lightening from the sky to sell on the market. His small role in this movie is hilarious, but I can’t say anymore then that.

I could go on and on about this movie, and its delightful long story, but I need to wrap this up. Matthew Vaughn, has made a true masterpiece of directing with this enchanting, and funny film. The scenery in this movie at times rivals “Lord of the Rings” material, and is just breath taking. The CGI is fantastic, and the long list of characters all work well together to make this fairy tale come to life.

My rating for this movie is 8.50 out of 10.00

Thursday, August 16, 2007

"Fracture"

A recent release on DVD by one of my favorite actors has just come out, and I just finally caught it. I was on vacation, and what luck, the movie they were showing on the plan flight was “Fracture.”

Anthony Hopkins is one of the most brilliant actors of our age, and some how, time after time, he brings to life any character thrown at him, with a sense of presence, style, and professionalism that is just unreal at times.

Director Gregory Hoblit casts Anthony, as a well to do structural engineer (Ted Crawford), who is very meticulous to say the least. Ted’s wife is having an affair with someone, and in his contained rage, Ted plans the perfect murder.

With a signed confession, and the murder weapon the case seems to be an open and shut door, so the D.A. allows a young, up and coming deputy attorney Willy Beachum (played by Ryan Gosling) to do the prosecuting on the case. Little does Willy know that Ted’s perfect murder is about to start taking shape. Ted decides that he will be his own lawyer in court, which makes it look as though it will be just that much more of a slam dunk case, but as Ted’s plan unfolds, Willy realizes that he has his hands full, as piece by piece of the prosecutions case gets blown out of the water.

This cat and mouse game between Will and Ted continues throughout the movie in and builds to a great ending which of course I will not go into. Let’s just say that Anthony is fantastic. He seems to borrow this kind of unshakable attitude he used in “Silence Of The Lambs” and just has you in his grip from scene one, and does not let go. I have to also give Ryan his due as the young upstart deputy attorney. He plays the character well, and makes the confrontational scenes with Anthony very interesting.

This murder mystery, is very watchable from all aspects. The movie has a very good look to it. The scenes are well put together, and planned out. In particular of course, are the court room scenes. Very palatable! The story line, while not completely original, is fresh and different enough to pass as it’s on entity which in this day and age of repeats, remakes, and re-do’s in Hollywood is a big time bonus. There are several nice twists, and turns as the movie rolls on to its big finale, so the film does keep you interested from front to back, even though a few scenes may actually seem slow at times.

“Fracture” is a definite worth while rental or even purchase. If you like a good suspense movie, or if you are any kind of Anthony Hopkins fan at all, this is a must see.

My rating for this movie 8.00 out of 10.00

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

"Next"

The first thing I have to say about this movie, is bravo to director Lee Tamahori for bringing to life a different idea for a change. While there have been a hundred movies about time travel, or precognition, this particular rendition is unique, and very refreshing.

Nicholas Cage now has a very large body of work in his ever growing resume' of movies, and unfortunately, they have been a mixed bag of nuts at best. I would say that only about 60% of the movies he is in are truly worth watching, but that 60% are very good movies spanning serious roles, comedic, bad guy, good guy, weird guy, ghost, and everything else in-between!

Nicholas is one of those actors that some how just him acting the same way, or just being himself in each movie just works. There are very few actors that can get away with this, and end up with the long careers that Nicholas has had. He has this way about him that is unique, and can just be used over and over and never seems to get old.

"Next" is a fun, and fast paced movie about a night club magician in Las Vegas who has an unusual act of guessing "What will happen next." The only difference with Nicholas's character, Chris Johnson, a.k.a Frank Cadillac, is that his act, is NOT an act. He actually has a real gift. Chris can see into the future a very short amount of time, but enough to where he can effect what happens to him, and his surroundings.

The trouble all starts when an F.B.I. agent Callie Ferris (played by Julianne Moore) finds out about Chris's ability, and talks her superiors into letting her acquire his aid (whether he likes it or not) in trying to thwart a terrorist bomb attack on U.S. soil.

Chris is able to escape the F.B.I.'s attempts to capture him several times with his love interest Liz Cooper (played by Jessica Biel) in tow by simply looking into the future in just enough time to see what their plans are, and precisely at the right moment slip through their fingers.

Eventually the F.B.I. does catch up with him, but not before pulling an amazing split second rescue of the main F.B.I. agent Callie. There is no real way to describe in words how Chris pulls these stunts off, but the people in charge of the C.G.I. do a fantastic job. One particular scene that is really mind bending, is towards the end of the movie when Chris, Liz, Callie, and a team of F.B.I. agents are stumbling through a warehouse trying to locate this bomb planted by the terrorist group, and the camera shows Chris splitting himself up in the future a hundred different ways searching through the warehouse trying to avoid booby trap type bombs set to blow up if someone walks past them.

This is about as far as I can take you with regards to the plot without playing the spoiler, so I will end on this note. Director Lee Tamahori, does manage to pull off a very good over all "look" and "feel" to the movie, and when all is said and done, the movie was very entertaining. I think if they were to kick things up a notch, they could easily pull off a sequel that would overshadow the first.

My rating for this movie is 7.50 out of 10.00



"Dream To Fly"

I have the unique opportunity to review a DVD that probably only a small handful of people have ever seen, or even heard of, but I enjoyed it so much, I thought I would share it with you folks that visit my blog.

The name of the DVD is “Dream To Fly,” For those of you who have ever watched the movie, “The Aviator,” or have ever been any kind of aviation fan, or buff, this is definitely worth buying for your collection.

I recently visited the Oregon coast for a family reunion, and had the wonderful pleasure of visiting the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville that is now the finally resting place of “The Flying Boat,” or as it is more commonly know, “The Spruce Goose.” This is the largest wooden plane ever built. It was built by the late Howard Hughes originally as a military transport, but as the war ended, the contract for building three of these mammoth plans was cancelled. Howard continued his work on this plane, spending a huge amount of money out of his own pocket, until it was finally completed. It was taken out for a test run on the eve of his appearance before a senate investigation claiming Howard Hughes had illegally spent the government’s money for this plane on partying and other things not related to the contract.

On this test run, the plane was not meant to fly. Many people did not believe it was even capable of flight because of its enormous size, and weight. Howard taxied the plane a couple of times, and on his final pass, he shocked the world as the behemoth lumbered out of the water, and into the air soaring some seventy feet, for almost a mile before he gently set the plane back down in the water. Howard's response to the press folks inside the plane was "I like to make surprises." The plane unfortunately never flew again, but it has managed to be kept from being disassembled, and junked.

After a long stay on the waterfront of Long Beach California, sitting next to the “Queen Marry,” the monster creation of Howard Hughes was finally purchased, and moved to its location in Oregon where it is now the centerpiece of a fantastic collection of vintage planes in a hanger / museum built especially for the Spruce Goose.

This DVD, narrated by Walter Cronkite, tells the full story of Howard Hughe's youth, to his rise as a wealthy owner of his fathers company, a famous movie director, and to the inception of the HK-1 Flying Boat, and goes on through with beautiful detail, the extreme process that went into constructing this plane. The archival footage is spectacular, and some of it has never been shown before until the release of this DVD.

For anyone who has ever had any interest in the history of recorded flight, The HK-1 is a piece of history for all time, and this DVD chronicles it’s story wonderfully. I encourage you if you are ever on the west coast, to make a special trip to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, and see for yourself the gigantic size of this gorgeous plane. Yes, you can actually stand inside the plane!

Since this DVD was put together by the museum itself, it is not for sale in any other place other then buying it at the museum (which I was lucky enough to do) or purchase it on line through the museums web site which I will list below. Click under “Museum Store” and then under “DVD”

I give this historical DVD a rating of 9.00 out of 10.00

http://www.sprucegoose.org/


Tuesday, August 14, 2007

"The Dark Tower"

"Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came." The immortal words by Robert Browning, that spawned a masterpiece of works by Stephen King.

I am really having a hard time putting my thoughts together for this review. I think by far this will be my most difficult. I have been a fan of Stephen King for many years, and I have read probably 90% of all of the books he has published, but this series of books "The Dark Tower" or "The Gunslinger" is a culmination of 22 years of writing for Stephen, and the final installment is a simply put, a work of art.

I am going to try once again to do the impossible. I'm going to review the entire Gunslinger / Dark tower series in a single review, so this may be a bit long winded, so please be patient.

Roland Deschain, son of Stephen “of the line of Eld”. The best description of this character would be a cross between a young Clint Eastwood in the old spaghetti western "High Plains Drifter" and Russel Crowe (Cort) in "The Quick and the Dead." Roland carries two large caliber 6 shooters with sandalwood hand grips, inscribed with intricate scroll work along the barrels. To say that accuracy when shooting said smoke wagons is precise, would be a joke of an understatement. He has been raised since a child to shoot (and kill) with his heart, and not with his hands. As the books often refer to a certain mantra spoken by gunslingers "To kill with ones hands, and not his heart, is someone who has forgotten the face of their father" Kind a spiritual reference to the fore fathers that the began the legend of the gunslingers, as well as the actual true father of person saying the mantra.

Roland is traveling the earth, in search of the only thing that his heart truly desires, and that is to find the dark tower, and climb its stairs. He travels through many worlds, times, places, whens, and where's to reach his final destination. Along the way many other characters appear throughout the books, and some even are taught by Roland to be gunslingers themselves.

The gunslinger treks through time, has many battles, villains, good guys, and bad, but what is interesting about the way he travels to different times and places, is through different doors. Doors that hang in the air appearing to float with nothing in front of them, and nothing in back, but are as solid and sometimes locked as solidly as a metal vault unless the right circumstances arise in which he is allowed passage through to the other side. Something straight out of a Twilight episode.

In the final book of this series "The Dark Tower," the master writer Stephen King, does something that I have never seen before. While some Authors have written themselves into their own scripts in the past, to my knowledge, NONE have ever done it in this fashion. Stephen writes himself into this script, and takes part in the actual story as himself! Here is the most unreal part. The characters in the book are made aware finally that they are in fact just characters in a book written by this man Stephen King! They actually seek him out at his residence and talk with him. They are self aware that their very existence hinges on him continuing to write the next books in the Dark Tower series!!! I can't continue to divulge the part that Stephen plays in this book because I don't want to spoil anything, but the shear madness it must have taken to write oneself into a story in this way is shear brilliance.

This series has 7 books in total, and each book is a master piece unto itself, but do not make the mistake I made by reading any one of the books out of order. While waiting for a plane at the airport, I ran into the book store, and picked up "The Drawing of the Three" which is actually book 2 by mistake not knowing it was a series. While the book fascinated me, I soon found out that this was a series, and I need to go back and start all over. I finally did, and read (or listened) to all 7 books in order until I just finished the final book not 2 days ago. let me say this. If 7 books seems a little bit of a journey (which it is) all of these books are available on audio CD, and they bring a quality to the story's that just can't be felt when reading.

Roland and his Dark Tower quest is the longest reading / listening undergoing I have ever taken on, and the journey it took me through was magical. With the three books I listened to on Audio CD I would find myself stuck in my car driving endlessly around my neighborhood just to listen to one more chapter. As for the books, I spent many nights flipping pages until the early morning hours, knowing full well I should just put the book down and go to sleep.

To the true Stephen King fan, this review is meaningless because you have already taken this fantastic journey, but this review was not meant for you. This review was meant for the many "Passer by" Stephen King fans that have read a few of his books, but have not decided to take on the daunting task of a 7 book series that spans 22 years. To these Stephen King fans, I implore you! Start this series, and you will not be disappointed, and you will not stop until the last page of book 7.

This is a first for me and my blog so read closely. I rate this series 10.00 out of 10.00!

"Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer"

This review is a long time in coming since I saw the movie in the theater several weeks ago, but for those of you who have not seen it, you can mark this one down as one you need to rent or buy for sure when it comes out on DVD.

There have been so many comic book re-makes that have come out of Hollywood over the past 20 years, I've completely lost count. Some of them turned out to be good, others just OK, and in rare instances, some were bad.

As a kid growing up, I myself was not into comic books much, but I had heard of the fantastic Four, and I do remember watching a few cartoons based off of the series. I didn't think much of them at the time, but for some reason, Hollywood got it right with this one. The chemistry of this group of actors works well together, and I think they managed to even improve upon themselves with this second release "Rise of the silver surfer."

One of my very favorite movie series is the "Matrix" movies, and in this Fantastic Four movie, the voice of the Silver surfer, is none other then Morpheus himself, Laurence Fishburne. He just has this voice that for some reason just fits the character.

The story outline for this movie wound up being a lot more fun, and cataclysmic then I had expected. The silver surfer's end role in this plot turned out much different as well. I can't go into detail for those of you who have not seen it yet, but lets just say "expect the unexpected."

There are a lot of great special effects as one would expect from this type of movie, and there are a lot of funny scenes as the hero's run into problems with their "powers" when some how, they manage to trade powers by simply coming into contact with each other. The "Thing" trading powers with "Johnny Storm" was particularly funny.

Keeping Tim Story as the director for this second installment of the Fantastic Four was a good move, and I really don't see any reason why they could not continue on with this series and be just as successful as some of the other comic book series that have had three, and even four movies made, as long as they keep the cast, and director in place. Change any of the aforementioned, and Hollywood could quickly end up with a huge flop on their hands.

All in all this was a fun movie for anyone to watch, and I expect huge sales for the DVD when it is released, but if you can still catch it on the big screen I recommend doing so.

My rating for this movie is 8.00 out of 10.00

Monday, August 13, 2007

"The Number 23"

My apologies for taking so long to have a new posting up, but I have been on vacation for the past week.

OK lets dive right into a movie I recently watched called "The number 23." I've watched Jim Carrey all the way back to his days as a dorky teenager in "Love at first bite" then onto his days on "In living color" and then onto his movie career which has turned out to be quite successful. I've enjoyed almost all of it. As Ace Ventura, Bruce Almighty, and "The Mask" I found myself several times on the floor unable to breath from laughing so hard. Jim is a marvelous comedic actor, and just has this way about him that you can not help but like, however, as he has tried to transition into a serious actor, I would have to say that most, if not all of his attempts to play a serious role have failed. Until now!


"The Number 23" is a very twisted brain bender, in which Jim (Walter Sparrow / Fingerling) gets caught up in a book that was found at a local book store by his wife, Agatha Sparrow / Fabrizia (played by Virginia Madsen.) Walter starts reading this red covered book, and begins to notice how almost all the events of the authors life, seems to run parallel to his own. So much so that he begins to obsess about how the number 23 begins to saturate and consume the authors life, and then begins to obsess himself in the same way. Everything equals 23!


As Walter falls further and further into the darkness of this mind trap, he also finds out the he is not the only person this book has captured!
Unfortunately I really can't go into much detail about the rest of the story because of how easily it would spoil the story, and the very weird ending to this strange tale.


Getting back to Jim Carrey's performance playing in a serious and strange role. Even in this movie i found myself seeing bits and pieces of all his funny characters from other movies, but there are many scenes in this movie where Jim does finally make the successful jump from comedic, to serious, and wow does he do it in style. One particular scene he is terrified, and crying, and I must admit, I bought into the seen hook, line, and sinker.


This movie has a very dark look to it, and all of the different spin off scenes as Walter reads this book, are well put together, and in the end, keeps you off balance, and for once in a very long time, actually guessing until the end.


While Director Joel Schumacher has a long, and distinguished list of movies he has directed, as I look down the list, there is not a whole lot of movie I have really cared for over the years, but I did like this one. There were a few spots that kept things SO off balance that I found it hard some times to keep a grip on the story line, but in the end, all the lose ends are tied up, and your left with your jaw hanging off your chest.

My rating for this movie is a solid 7.00 out of 10.00


Wednesday, August 1, 2007

"The Chronicles of Narnia"

This particular review will be a first for me. I'm going to combine reviews for the "Chronicles of Narnia" and the movie that was in the theaters not to long ago, "The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe." They tie together perfectly into one review and allow me to give perspective on both.

As a child some of my fondest memories in school back in 3rd grade, was during a time of the day where our teacher would read to us. As it happens "The Chronicles of Narnia" was one of books (series of books) that she read to us.

C.S. Lewis actually wrote this series between 1949 and 1954, so these wonderful stories have been around for quite some time, but because of Disney's desire to make a movie of the 1st book in the series it has drawn attention back to the original series. If you did manage to get out and see "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" rent, or buy the movie once it was out on DVD, then you have got a small taste of the wonders of Narnia. If for some reason you have not gone out and read the 7 book series after seeing the movie, I encourage you to do so.

I will try to give a quick run down of the Narnia series. Some where in time stood a huge tree with magical properties. The tree was cut down, and the wood was made into several objects. Each object has the power to transport the characters from the real world, into the magical realm of Narnia where time runs so slowly that you could live a life time in Narnia, return to the real world, and have no time pass at all. In "The Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the wardrobe of course was made from wood from the magical tree. In Narnia, there are hundreds of different creatures, all of which can talk as plainly as an human, each one more fascinating then the next. Some are good, some are Evil, but all fear the king of Narnia, Aslan. He is a huge Lion, and he basically equates to Jesus in our world.

Getting back to the movie. Regardless of whether you have read the books or not, director Andrew Adamson does a fantastic job of casting this movie. He sets the different scenes from the book almost exactly as my minds eye remembers them as a child hearing the books read to me in class. Between the remarkable CGI, and live action with the actors, this movie makes Narnia come to life in a brilliant way. Being a little bit of a pessimist, I was very worried about this movie. Trying to pull this movie off I think was a huge gamble from many angles, but wow. The results speak for themselves. Not only did the pull this one off, but they did it in spectacular fashion!

The cast of actors who played the roles of Lucy Pevensie, (Georgie Henley) Edmund Pevensie, (Skandar Keyness) Peter Pevensie, (William Moseley) and Susan Pevensie (Anne Popplewell) all do a wonderful job of taking this movie, and making it their own. I really suggest that if you rent or purchase this movie, that you watch the extra material on the DVD. The show many shots behind the scenes, and they show you the off camera relationship between the kids, and the director. As well as they all got along off set while making the movie, it becomes more then obvious as to why the chemistry is so great on set.

This is truly a fantastic movie, and tells the story of the book almost verbatim. I highly recommend this movie (and books) for children of ALL ages!

My rating for the books as a set, and the movie is 9.00 out of 10.00